Environmental Ethics
Mr. Waring
February, 2002
Why is it important to have an environmental ethic?
            It is important to have an environmental ethic not because flowers are cute, and giraffes make for a great safari.  To value the natural world for its beauty is to miss the point.  Do not value the rest of life merely because it pleases you, and do not value it because it provides you with an economic resource, such values are trivial.  It is important to have an environmental ethic which values the rest of the biotic community, and Earth's natural systems because they are our home, they are our support, they are our birth, our life and our death.  Without the living Earth, and all it's creative, productive, healthy, rejuvenating natural life, humans are utterly stranded.  We came from earth, we are earth, and we are responsible for earth.  Therefore a truly human ethic must be an ethic which is truly Earthly.  It must be of global scope and in unending support of the creativity and diversity of life, for that is what supports us all.
            There are other reasons to value the environment, even from a narrow anthropocentric point of view.  The earth provides food, water, and life support systems which, if valued economically, exceed the Global Economic Product.  The earth provides the raw materials upon which our economies depend, and without which economic growth would be laughable.  The earth provides incentive and a reason to live.  It provides a rich background for human activities.  It provides a beautiful interactive landscape full of wonder, mystery and intricacy.  At the very least life is the best puzzle.
Are our economics too anthropocentric?
            Yes, our economics are too anthropocentric.  Currently our primary resource accounting system is capitalism.  The human race has developed a global economy, which is based on the principles of the capitalist free market.  Resources, goods and services are exchanged for each other and for tokens called money.  Money is a unique cultural symbol which holds value in itself, yet has no inherent worth.  The use of such an abstract value holder has enabled many efficiencies and changes in the way humans conduct their affairs, and manage their resources, but just the use of an abstract value holder does not guarantee sustainable use of resources, let alone ethical use.  The reason behind the current global environmental decline is that our economics does not provide the proper information to the people who function within the economy--our economy values the wrong things.
            Our economy values the price and the 'quality' of an item.  The higher quality at the lower price creates the higher value.  This is fine, and capitalism has a power to produce cheap alternatives.  However, the only information that the consumer of a product (service, food or tool) receives is the price, which is based a limited conception of value.  A pear bought from an organic orchard which is working to care for the land it uses to produce those pears, and a pear bought from a conventional orchard which uses fertilizers, pesticides and monoculture techniques, are not the same thing.  One production system values the environment, and works to sustains the health of its orchard ecosystem and those around it.  The other orchard cares nothing for the health of the ecosystem, and views the production of pear as a simple process entirely controlled in a rigid, mechanistic way.  This system of production degrades the health of the soil, poisons the ground and the water, and encourages outbreaks of natural pests.
              If our economy incorporated the effect that a system of production has on its environment, then it would label the organic pear as cheaper than the conventional pear.  However, currently the price difference is just the reverse.  Those products which degrade the environment, deplete resources, and pollute the air and water are valued as cheaper (and therefore better) than those which do not.  This complete injustice must be changed if humans are to stop being the destroyer of life, and are to come to protect and enhance living systems.
How do we change our worldview?
            We change our worldview so that our worldview matches the world itself.  If our economics is too anthropocentric, we must create an economics which is a good representation of the world as it is, and is not a narrow minded scheme focused on human aggrandizement.  Doing this requires study of and respect for the living communities of which we are a part.
How should we value:  Life, organisms, species, ecosystems?
            How we structure our values is the main force in creating the nature of human involvement with the world.  If our values are reckless and adolescent then our actions will be wasteful and violent.  If our values are humble and inclusive, then our actions will be balanced and restrained.  But how do we structure our values?
              There is only one essential choice in how we structure our value set.  Our values can either match the world, or be in disagreement with it.  If our values are in disagreement with the world then we will value things that are insignificant for life, and the stability of nature will depend on things which we do not value, or value differently.  If our ethics match the world, then our actions will naturally fall into a beautiful coexistence with the rest of life, and a harmony with nature.  But how do we make our ethics match the world?  The only way to make our ethics match the reality of the world, and therefore stay true to it, is to take our sense of right and wrong directly from nature itself.  We must pattern our morality and our ethics on the processes of the natural world to ensure that our actions do not violate the system within which we live.
Organisms:      Organisms should be given an ethics position above that of inanimate material.   Organisms are self-sustaining entities which protect their own good.  They have an interest just as surely as you and I do, and that interest should be respected.  Not all organisms can feel pain, but many can.  If we must use, harvest and kill organisms for our own good, then we must be fully respectful of their loss, and our benefit by their life.
Species:            Species are of a much grander and more essential category than organisms.  They are more sovereign than any human nation, race, or culture.  A species represents an evolutionary product, as unique as ourselves.  The human race is just one of approximately 5 million species.  It has no right to end the existence of any species.  Since humans act individually, and not collectively, the question of the death of a species should never arise, because the category of a species is far above and beyond that of the individual.
Ecosystems:      Ecosystems are the vital web that sustains all life on earth, and we must value them as such.  We must value ecosystems as giving life, space, food, habitat, competition, and health to all creatures.  Ecosystems are the matrix of life.  We must understand that ecosystems not only support us and the life forms we directly depend on, but also create a healthy, self-stabilizing, dynamic, diverse, competitive forum of life, in which all types have a role, and contribute to the unfolding of evolution.
All of Life:       Tracing the links of dependence of the human creature we find that we are not just dependant upon clean air, clean water, and food, but upon the forests, marshes and plants that create and sustain them, and further upon the soil, productive and decomposing communities that in turn sustain them.  We are eventually beholden to the entire biotic community which makes our lives as rich and varied as they are.
What is the right relationship between humans and the rest of life?
            Humans are different from the rest of life, we are the most complicated species, and therefore we do occupy a different niche, and play a different role within the web of life.  However we do not stand apart from the rest of life, we are not outside of, or above it in anyway.  Our position within the living world necessitates that we respect and nurture life as our natural family, but our capacity for knowledge, power and foresight gives us unique responsibilities toward the rest of life.
            Humans are the flag ship of life.  We are the conscious leaders of the unfolding of life.  As Miriam T MacGillis said "What we think, the earth thinks".  And what we decide for ourselves is simultaneously decided for the rest of life, because we are the leaders.  How should leaders act?
How should human ethics and environmental ethics come together?
            There should be no distinction between human ethics and environmental ethics.  The two should be so well fused, and so uniform that discerning where one ends and the other begins should be impossible.  Our care for our environment and the rest of the team of life should pervade our every human decision, for we should never forget our proud position as leader of, and our serious duty in service of, the rest of life.
            Our actions in the human world should be done with a reverence for nature and the life that we have been given.  Our actions in the natural world should be carried out with a respect for our own nature, power, vision, and unique position within the web of life.  As we expand our concept of who we, as humans, really are, then our definition of ?human ethics? will become a definition of ?ethics of the leaders and supporters of life.?  Similarly, we will never look at the natural world, without remembering our own nature, and our role within nature.  The sign of a healthy society is if there is any distinction between the ethics of nature and the ethics of humans, for there should be none.  A break between these two parts of a unified whole represents a deep lack of understanding not only of nature, but of ourselves.
1) Miriam T. MacGillis, 'A New Cosmology,' an audio lecture, 1980s
2) Ecology, Economics, Ethics: The Broken Circle.
           Good leaders care for and respect all of their team members.  They support and encourage their team, as they are fully aware that without their team the leader is nothing.  They work for the best functioning of the team, and they support the natural dynamics of cooperation and interdependence.  As the leaders of the team of life, we need to organize ourselves against losses.  We are loosing members of our team every day, not individuals, but entire types, species.  Humans should act as the proud leaders of the community of life, and should respect that their position is not in domination over earth but in service of the rest of the living world.
Figure 1. A Floridian food web.